Trump asks the Supreme Court to revive his dismissed 2016 election lawsuit against Hillary Clinton

President Donald Trump asked the US Supreme Court on Friday to revive his dismissed lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, his 2016 Democratic rival, accusing her of conspiring with former FBI Director James Comey and others to rig that year's election by linking his campaign to Russia.

Trump filed the original suit in 2022, when he was out of office, naming Clinton, Comey, former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, the Democratic National Committee, and dozens of others. It alleged racketeering and a conspiracy to commit injurious falsehood, claiming Clinton conspired with allies to discredit him with a false narrative of Russian collusion.

US District Judge Donald Middlebrooks threw out the case and ruled Trump's attorneys liable for nearly 1 million dollars in sanctions, writing that "no reasonable lawyer would have filed it." The Atlanta based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals largely upheld the dismissal and sanctions.

In the appeal, Trump's lawyers argued that Supreme Court review is needed to protect the presidency, writing that the lower courts reflect "a deeply troubling trend of federal courts using sanctions and disciplinary threats to punish the president and his lawyers for legitimate legal positions that those courts (erroneously) reject." They argued Trump waited until he was out of office because a sitting president could not spare the time and energy for a private civil suit, and that the racketeering claims were therefore filed in time.